Murder suspect let free after fax machine ‘ran out of ink’

A suspect in a murder case was able to walk free from court due to a technicality – he had faxed an appeal that wasn’t received because the court’s machine had run out of ink.

The suspect, only known as Amadou F, had been incarcerated in France awaiting trial for the 2010 murder of a DJ in Seine-Saint-Denis, north-east of Paris.

As reported by the Telegraph, by French law, the courts must respond to a faxed appeal against an imprisonment within 20 days.

However, the court in the town of Bobigny didn’t receive it because the fax had run out of toner and, because the machine was so old, the staff had no idea where to buy new cartridges.

A murder suspect was released on a technicality after the fax machine ran out of ink (Picture: Getty/Cristian Mihai Vela)

The 24-year-old’s release, on Wednesday, has angered the family of deceased DJ Claudy Elisor.

‘This man has been freed for a problem of fax ink. I am disgusted. I don’t understand how such a thing can happen,’ Mr Elisor’s widow Fabienne told le Parisien.

‘What am I going to tell my children? I am appalled at the attitude of the justice system to us.’

The lawyers of the suspect defended the decision of the courts, however, saying: ‘Criminal code procedure states that if the expiry date is passed, the sanction is the immediate release of the detainee, bar an unpredictable, insurmountable event external to the state justice system.’